Was at Grinduro in Hakuba last October and it was very similar to temps we’d have over here at that time of year… but we were at 1,200ft above sea level. Glad I wasn’t camping as the folks who were looked frozen in the morning!

Always plenty of shenanigans going on at a Grinduro weekend!

Sampled a lot of the route last year as part of an industry pre-ride type affair. The route consists of a lot of Keilder style gravel fire roads and quiet country lanes. My bike had Teravail Ramparts – a fat slick which was fine but I’d prefer something semi-slick or file tread such as a Cannonball or the new Washburn.

As Atlaz has already suggested, the 3T SuperGhiaia is everything you’ve asked for.

I’ve been using them for a few months now and really like the shape. Never been a fan of the wonky hood position a lot of flared bars feature, so the straight ahead hood setup works a treat for me.

They’ll also make your wallet lighter!

Squirt have parted ways with In2Dust and got a new UK distributor who are currently setting up their new website.

At the moment, they’re selling through Amazon until their site is running!

5’11” here and on a size large Highball with a 90mm stem. It came fitted with a 70mm which was too cramped for me.

Also used for whizzing around Thetford.

C6 Bikes in Cambridge are running a demo day in Thetters later this month. phone them up and see if they can wangle a Highball from the distributor for you to try? At the very least, they may be able to give you a better idea on sizing.

Local garage attempted to change the glow plugs on my 2010 Trafic.

They were seized solid and going nowhere. Options were to smash the head or get a new engine, so I took it up to a Traffic/Vivaro who specialist managed to remove them with a special compressor based tool along with the injectors.

The whole job hit me with a £2k service bill.

🙁

Another Sequoia Elite owner over here. Well, it should be in my grubby palms on the 26th Sept…

I’m struggling to call it anything but Bonty. Good to see some fresh sponsorship though as it is a great event.

Entered the 12hr solo for another year. The drive from Suffolk is a test of endurance on it’s own!

Have SIDs on my main bike. Gets lots of regular use including frequent trips to Welsh trail centres.

I’m not dead yet and the forks are still happy after 2 years of abuse.

Have had a couple of sessions with Steve from Chasing Trails and really rate him.
Cool, calm and patient. Just what you need in a coach!

If Qwerty are being a little slack, you could give http://www.cannondalespares.com a go.

They’re a bricks and mortar bike shop based in East Anglia. Have helped me out a number of times in the past.

Adding another name to the redundancytrackworld thread.

Funnily enough, all I’ve felt is relief too!

Agencies have proven pretty useless so far, but thankfully old contacts have come up trumps with a number of interviews.

Work in IT and Cambridge is an hour up the road, so feeling pretty confident for the future.

One of these came attached to my new bike and it looked like a thing of torture.

I was dead set on chucking the thing straight onto eBay until I saw the RRP for it and then decided to at least give it a chance and glad I did because it’s seriously one of the comfiest saddles I’ve ever used.

I’d love to get another, but it’s still a hefty price for ‘just’ a saddle.

Stage 1 looks like a good excuse for a ride round Dalby Forest to me. Stop for a quick bit of heckling and then ride on 🙂

The Nutcracker MTB (Yorkshire regional series) organisers keep making positive noises about running a 24hr.
But I think that’s all it is at the moment. Just noises 🙁

Not much to add that hasn’t already been said.

But I could get two large 29ers in the back with wheels off, enough kit for a weekend race and still have enough room up front for two lanky lads to travel in comfort.

+1 on the crappy eccentric BB

Other than that, a pretty good off the shelf single speed. Though it made more sense to me when it was cheaper.
Price (and spec) slowly creeps up each model year.

I have two, an 8 year old and a 2 year old.
About as well behaved as terriers can be and fine round other dogs although the youngest does like to give a lot of verbal to anything bigger than him.

Long walk before work and then they’ll sit in the house patiently until I get home in the evening for another walk.

Neither of them like men with beards.

Couldn’t get into it this year. The start loop mix-up left me right amongst some stressed out 3/4 man squads who were keen to make up on lost time. I then stopped to help a couple of fallen newbies who’d got flattened by the mob before trying to get myself into some form of solo rhythm. Didn’t happen.

I slipped over the road and played on the red route instead 😀

A 6hr would be tempting for me also.
Rumour has it that there might just be such a thing on the horizon over at Shouldham Warren organised by Kings Lynn MTB. Fingers crossed…

As for D2D numbers, a lot of folks I’ve spoken with are just a bit bored of Thetford now. There’s been a lot of forestry work and even more planned, which has seriously cut down on trails available.

It still has a good atmosphere IMHO. Will be very sad if it ever slipped off the calendar.

Another solo here.

The course could do with a little rain as it was very dusty yesterday.

Entries are well down this year (probably a result of nearly zero PR) so I’m hoping for a quiet course 😀

Chasing Trails at Dalby Forest also do gift vouchers.
Well worth getting in touch with if you are located/passing that way.

Have an original Tallboy carbon, not sure what the changes are on the 2 but can’t imagine it’s wildly different.

I raced it for 2 years in endurance races, long muddy rides in the York Moors, the Quantocks and trail centres here there and everywhere. Even had a pop at an enduro, I wasn’t the fastest but the bike was still very capable.

Very comfy on the long rides but still able to put a spurt on when needed.

Loads of muddy miles and I still haven’t changed the bearings.

More Scalpel love required in this thread 8)

Another +1 for Scalpel 29.

Great views but a trail centre it is not.

Essentially a linked up route of existing bridleways along with a small twisty man made section in the land around the visitor centre. Considering the fanfare Pace have built up over the launch, I was expecting more.

I can see some potential for conflict looming once more riders start to visit – some sections run along the Cleveland Way and it’s very popular with walkers. It’ll only take a Strava Hero to come barrelling round the corner and into a group of Ramblers and then it’ll get violent.

There’s also a road section that runs beside a racehorse training gallop. On the day I visited a woman waved us down and asked us to ride our bikes on the WRONG side of the road so as not to disturb the horses! Don’t know if she’s a permanent fixture, but she’ll be quite busy now the summer hols are in full swing.

On a positive note, the views are stunning. The use of trail centre way marking to build a loop out of the existing BW network might even encourage trail centre addicts to pick up an OS map and look at venturing out onto bridleways a little more.

Having been a passenger on both the single seat and the double on consecutive trips from Suffolk to Wales, I’d vote for the single seat every time.

Bench is fine for short trips, but it gave my back some reet pain on longer journeys.

Stick it in the bin. Mine has survived a year without one so far 🙂

Ison are throwing a Surly and Salsa demo day up at EDS Bikes near Dalby Forest on 15th June.

I’ve ridden in the area the course is going to use and there is nothing technical.

Any bike will be fine but a burly full sus probably won’t be much good if you are hoping to finish in a good time.

Spent some considerable time yesterday ogling letmetalktomark’s Knard n’ Dually combo. Looks like JustRidingAlong do a damn fine wheel build 8)

Currently got Thunder Burts on my race bike… That might be a little interesting 😕

Nope.
Second year running that it’s been absent 😥

Organiser promises that it will return at some point.

Yep, have a word with Gorrick about the MBSA.

Thetford MTB Racing recently jumped ship from BC and over to MBSA for insurance etc.

They scratch up a lot easier. That’s probably it 😉

Like pete68, I’m giving it a miss this year. Wasn’t impressed with Gatcombe last year, even a little rain seemed to make the whole place a muddy drag.

Going on past experience when the organisers say they’ve improved something, it usually means they haven’t.

+1 for the Coleman event tent.

Very happy with mine

Checking for device updates if you’ve not done so for a while is worth doing too.

As much as I like the chap, isn’t it a bit soon for an autobiography?
If he’d won the IOM, I could understand. But he’s still got a lot of unfinished business to attend to.